Lost in the Echoes
by xXChiasaHimuraXx
Summary: The past is not always as it seems, woven in a web of deceit. When the truth is buried under lies, how far will Houtarou go to discover the truth?
1. Prologue: Strange Calls and Family Ties

**A/N: **Hoo boy... First fanfic for Hyouka... We'll see how this goes. (:

Random prologue is _**not** _random. I had a friend read it for me and asked her to guess at the plot. She didn't do half bad picking out all the clues I'm already throwing your way, either. That said, details are evident of what is going to happen later if you're willing to play detective. ;) Personally, I'd love to see people try to solve mystery before Houtaro and the gang does. (:

Japanese pops up here and there. If it's too confusing, just tell me and I'll stop. (But personally I think it's kinda fun to use...)

**Shipping: **Yes or no? I will honestly only add it if people want it, so let me know. (And don't worry; if I add it, it won't interfere with the plot at all.)

Everyone says this, but I love reviews - especially constructive criticism. (:

Aaaand last but not least: I don't know Hyouka, only the plot and any necessary OCs...

* * *

_Prologue: Strange Calls and Family Ties_

"Oreki residence."

"Oreki, huh? So I finally got it right!"

"Uh…"

"I don't suppose I could be fortunate enough to be speaking with Houtaro-kun?"

"Uh… I don't mean to be rude, but who is this?"

"Ah! _Sumimasen!_ I shouldn't have expected you to recognize my voice – it's been a long time since we've seen each other, after all! You were just a little thing still… I'm your uncle – Uncle Kohei!"

Houtaro stared blankly at the wall opposite him. "Never heard of you… Sorry."

"Somehow I'm not surprised. You're mother and I don't exactly get on very well. But no matter! I'm going to be passing through Kamiyama soon and thought I might stop by." A pause in which Houtaro could hear sound in the background – an announcement of some kind? "I have to be going now, but you'll let your parents know I called, right?"

"Uh… Yeah, I guess…"

Another pause. "Actually, let's just keep this between you and me, eh? We'll make it a surprise for the rest of the family!"

"Uhm… Okay."

"That's a good lad! I'll be seeing you soon!"

Houtaro continued to stare blankly at the phone after the line went dead. "Strange…" Shrugging, he put the hand-held back in the cradle and returned to his breakfast. He'd have to hurry a little now to keep from being late for school. He sighed. Just who was that anyway? He may not interact much with his extended family, but he thought he knew most of the names of his aunts and uncles, at least… Quickly downing the rest of his food, he decided to keep it from Chitanda at least – she would be too curious, and he really had no way to solve a mystery like this one at the moment.

* * *

"Houtaro… Earth to Houtaro!" Satoshi intoned, waving his hand in front of his friend's face.

Houtaro came back with a start. "_Nani?"_

Mayaka giggled. "We've only been trying to get your attention for the last five minutes!"

"Where did you go, Oreki-san?" Chitanda asked, tilting her head to the side. "I'm curious!"

Houtaro frowned. "I didn't go anywhere. I'm sitting right here."

"You know what she meant," Mayaka frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's odd for you to space out like that."

"What were you thinking about, Oreki-san?"

Those shining violet eyes had him caught just like always. He was cornered, and he knew it; she would always get him to fess up with those too-innocent eyes of hers. Staring into them, he couldn't hide – he felt like his very soul was visible to her. Resigned to his fate, Houtaro sighed, glancing towards the door for the sake of avoiding the other members' stares. "Just… Something strange that happened this morning, that's all. It's really not that important."

"_Hontouni?_ What happened?"

Shifting his gaze was a mistake: There were those all-seeing eyes digging into his soul again. He groaned quietly. "Nothing… It was just a phone call…"

"A phone call's got you spacing out?" Mayaka huffed. "And here I thought it was going to be something interesting."

"What made it strange, Oreki-san?" Chitanda continued.

"Why are you so curious? It's really not that important…"

"I'm just curious as to what made you curious!"

"Who said I was curious?"

"You said it was strange…"

"Not the same thing."

"And you were obviously thinking hard about it."

He couldn't deny it. Houtaro shrugged. "It was just strange that a relative I've never heard of would call, that's all."

Chitanda stood up suddenly, slamming her hands onto the table, leaning forward into Houtaro's personal space. "A relative you've never heard of? How is that possible? I'm curious!"

Houtaro leaned back, turning his head to the side to put a little distance between them. "It's not really that surprising; I don't really know my extended family very well…"

"And you're bad with names," Mayaka added with a smirk. "Even if it was someone you should know you'd probably get the person's name wrong."

"Oh, shut up…"

"Well, it's true."

"Either way," Houtaro concluded, "it's not that important."

Chitanda sat back down. "It's still got me curious…"

"I shouldn't have said anything," Houtaro muttered. "I'm sure I'll know after school anyway… I'll just ask Tomoe – if she's home by then, that is."

Chitanda shook her head. "Not that…"

"Something else, Chii-chan?" Mayaka asked, turning to her friend.

"Hmm." Chitanda nodded once. "Oreki-san…"

He glanced up. "Still about me?"

"Hai. You said you don't know you're extended family well… That seems odd to me."

"Why? We just live far from most of them so I don't see them often, that's all."

She smiled. "Actually, I'm more curious about your immediate family. It just donned on me that I don't know much about them – about any of your families, actually!"

"What's to say?" Satoshi asked with a sigh. "I'm an only child, and my parents are both businessmen. Not much of interest there…"

Mayaka nodded. "Same for me, Chii-chan. There's not much to tell about them."

"Oreki-san?" Chitanda asked. "What about you?"

"I have an older sister, and my parents both work, sometimes even going out of the country, so I don't even see them much," he answered blandly. "Nothing to tell…"

"Hmm, no wonder you don't really know your extended family," she spoke almost sadly, "if you don't even see your own parents much…"

He shrugged. "Doesn't bother me. Tomoe is more than enough, believe me…"

"It's still sad, Oreki-san. Who takes care of you?"

"I can take care of myself."

"What about when you're ill? Or injured?"

"Can't remember the last time I was ill or injured so horribly I couldn't take care of myself."

"That's so sad, Oreki-san…"

"_Yare, yare_…"

But, even though he'd said it wasn't important, it wouldn't leave him alone. He couldn't stop thinking about it. With an irritated sigh as he pushed open the front door of his house, he couldn't help but think that Chitanda was _definitely _rubbing off on him (although if this was actually a _bad _thing, he still wasn't sure). "_Tadaima_," he called as he closed the door and slipped off his shoes. Just as he'd hoped, his sister quickly made herself known. It was convenient she home; he was could make quick work of the mystery that had been haunting him since that morning now. "Aneki, do we have an Uncle Kohei?"

The smile that was always on her face faltered slightly. "Where did you hear that, little brother?"

Houtaro hesitated; he didn't like that look – it meant something was wrong. "He called this morning – while I was getting ready for school. Why?"

"What did he want?"

"Nothing much. Just said he'd be passing though Kamiyama and might stop by. Is something wrong, Aneki?"

Tomoe turned away from him. "Oh, not really. He's mom's brother, and they just don't get along well, that's all." She started back towards the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes."

So much for the quick-fix solution for, as he watched her retreating back, Houtaro couldn't help but feel as if she was hiding something – something important. He sighed, running a hand through his tousled hair. _Mountains out of mole hills, _he thought; _Chitanda-san is _definitely _rubbing off on me…_

* * *

_~When the Past Tangles with the Present~_


	2. Chapter 1 Disappearance

**A/N: **I couldn't wait any longer to post this; gomenne, Elodie, that you don't get to read this one before everyone else. (:

To my guest reviewer: Glad I caught your attention! I hope you'll keep coming back for more! (:

This little guy: (*) - I don't know if this is true in Japan, but it's true in the USA, and I wanted to use that line, so... Yeah. (:

Disclaimer: I will seriously _pay _you to translate the fifth volume of Hyouka for me. That being said, I obviously don't know Japanese, which obviously means I didn't write Hyouka to begin with.

**Have fun playing detective! And good luck. ;)**

* * *

_Chapter One  
Disappearance_

"I wonder where Oreki is today," Mayaka muttered, staring at the empty seat in the club room.

"Maybe he's ill?" Chitanda suggested hesitantly.

"Hm. It is kind of strange," Satoshi mused. "I can't remember the last time Houtaro missed because of illness…"

"Chii-chan does have a point, though; what _else _could it possibly be?"

"Dunno." Satoshi stretched as he stood up. "But I'm willing to bet that if I go over there I'll find out. I'll call you when I find out, Mayaka."

She nodded, glancing to the other girl to her right. "And I'll pass it on to you, Chii-chan."

Chitanda nodded as they all stood to leave. The walk to the front gate was shrouded in silence and, once they had said their goodbyes and headed in different directions, remained in relative silence.

Satoshi stopped outside the Oreki residence and rang the bell. Glancing around as he waited for someone to answer the door, he noted the absence of only one vehicle belonging to his friend's family. It wasn't unusual for both cars to be gone – in fact, Satoshi found it almost strange that one of them remained as that meant either his father or mother was actually home for a change. He frowned, ringing the bell for a second time; if someone was home, why was no one answering the door?

He turned to leave when he heard a sound from inside – the sound of a phone ringing. Once, twice, three times. After the fourth, he knew, it would switch to the answering machine. The phone rang once more before the house returned to silence. So no one was home then? If Houtaro wasn't at school and he wasn't at home, then where had he been all day? What about his parents? And his sister? She could be at class, it was true, but that didn't explain why one vehicle was at home yet no one was there. True, they could have all ridden in the same car, but that didn't explain why Houtaro had missed school. Satoshi could clearly remember one day in junior high when Houtaro had come to school when he had, clearly, been ill, yet Houtaro had told him that his father wouldn't stand for him to miss school if it could be helped. So surely they hadn't just left on a vacation… Surely Houtaro would have told them the day before if that were the case, as well…

Satoshi groaned running a hand through his hair. It didn't add up… But, then again, he didn't have the reasoning skills of his friend – of _any_ of his friends, actually.

"If you're looking for Houtaro-kun," an older woman's voice pulled Satoshi from his thoughts, "I'm afraid they aren't at home."

Satoshi turned to the woman – graying hair, face full of laugh-lines, kind eyes. "I was," he responded. "Houtaro was absent from school… I came by to find out why. Do you know where they are?"

"I'm afraid I don't. I was watering my flowers last evening when I saw them leave in a hurry. Considering the packed bags, I guess I should have asked, but…" She shrugged. "Normally they ask me to watch the house when the whole family goes somewhere. Strange that they didn't this time. And, with the awful hurry they appeared to be in, I didn't dare delay them."

Satoshi's frown deepened. "That does seem strange. Well, thanks anyway, ma'am." As he turned back to the sidewalk to head home, he pulled his phone from his school bag, scrolling through the contacts to find the one he wanted.

"Mayaka? I think we have a problem."

* * *

"So basically Houtaro has gone who-knows-where for who-knows-how-long for who-knows-why and we have nothing to go on."

"Something like that, yes."

Mayaka leaned back, falling to the floor, groaning in frustration. After Satoshi had called her, she had called Chitanda, who decided they should meet right away at her home. The tea on the table in the front of the group had been forgotten as soon as Satoshi had arrived bearing the news. "How is it that the only person capable of solving mysteries out of the lot of us _is _the mystery this time around?"

"Then we'll just have to solve it ourselves," Chitanda declared, adding quietly, "Somehow…"

"How can we even hope to solve it, Chii-chan? Oreki is the only one out of us who has ever been able to come up with a correct solution…"

"I have to agree with Chitanda-san," Satoshi spoke up. "Houtaro isn't here, so we'll just have to do it ourselves. Somehow."

"You're one to talk, Mr. 'Database,'" Mayaka scoffed.

"Well, we can't just sit here and wait for something to happen, can we?" he countered.

"Yes, we could, actually. Maybe we're over-reacting, and nothing is wrong. Or maybe a family member passed away, and they had to rush off for the funeral. We don't know that there is even a definite mystery to solve."

"Yes. We do – or, at least, I do." Satoshi's frown deepened, brow furrowing in thought. "I know something is wrong here, Mayaka. Maybe I can't draw conclusions like most people, but I do know that something is wrong." He ticked off the reasons on his fingers. "No one is home. They left frantically, not even bothering to ask the neighbor to watch their house like they, apparently, normally do. And," Satoshi pulled his phone out of his pocket, setting it on the table, "he's not answering my calls or my texts. When I call, it goes straight to voicemail every time. You can't tell me that's not strange."

"Maybe they flew somewhere, and it's still off from the flight?" Chitanda suggested. "Or maybe the battery died?"

"If they left abruptly, then they probably didn't catch a flight anywhere," Mayaka countered. "Most of the time it's difficult to get tickets on short notice – especially for four people. And unless they had a bunch of long lay-overs, they should have reached their destiny long before now."

"Houtaro's also not one to let his phone die, just in case there's an emergency." He sighed. "And there's the fact that I tried Tomoe-san's cell phone, too, with the same result."

"How do you have his sister's number?" Mayaka couldn't help but ask. "That's… a little stalker-ish, Fuku-chan."

"Houtaro is actually the one who gave it me," Satoshi countered. "After that time… _Iie_, that's not important. But he gave it to me in case of emergency. I'm not sure what he was thinking could happen, but…" He shrugged. "Either way, isn't it strange that when I called her I got the same result? It just doesn't sit right with me…"

Mayaka sat back up and leaned on the table. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to look into it…"

"You know," Satoshi grinned, "I'd be willing to bet that the extra key is still hidden by the front door…"

"You want to search his house?" Mayaka asked, eyebrow slowly rising.

"How else are we going to get any clues about where he is?"

"Isn't that breaking and entering?" Chitanda asked. "That's illegal…"

"Nah, just entering if we use the key," Satoshi grinned wider. "So what do you guys say?"

* * *

"I'm still not so sure about this, Fuku-chan…"

"Do you have a better idea, Mayaka?"

"Not really…"

"Then hush up while I find the key."

"What if it's not there anymore?"

"Then we'll just have to come up with another plan… AHA!" Satoshi held up the small piece of metal triumphantly. "Told you it would be here!"

"Let's just hurry up and get this over with before a neighbor calls the police on us…"

"_Hai, hai, hai…"_

The trio quickly stepped inside as soon as Satoshi had the door open. Slipping off their shoes, they quietly made their way further into the house.

"It seems normal enough," Chitanda murmured.

"Maybe we should split up," Satoshi suggested. "I'll look around down here, and you two take the bedrooms upstairs?"

Mayaka and Chitanda nodded, heading for the stairs, while Satoshi moved into the den. Everything appeared just as it always did (well, the few times he had been in the Oreki residence, anyway). A pile of mail sat innocently on the table in front of the couch. Absently, he flipped through the stack, finding nothing more than a couple of bills and junk mail. Moving towards the kitchen, a red, blinking light caught his attention from the corner of his eye. Abandoning his path to the other room, he turned to where the phone sat in its cradle next the desktop computer in the corner. "Fifteen missed calls?" he muttered, scrolling through the list of numbers. "All from the same number… I guess whoever it is doesn't know they aren't here." He frowned. "What could be so important for this person to call fifteen times in the last two days?" Filing away the information in his brain, he continued to the kitchen.

"Fuku-chan?" Mayaka called, coming down the stairs with Chitanda close behind.

"Kitchen." (Actually, he was still standing in the door way, but that was a mere technicality.)

"Nothing especially abnormal upstairs," Chitanda reported. "The bedrooms were a bit of mess, like someone packed in a hurry and had to decide what was most important to take and had to throw everything else to the side, but we already knew they left hastily…"

He nodded. "Same down here – except the fifteen missed calls all from one person seemed a little strange…"

"All from the same person?" Mayaka furrowed her brows in concentration. "Did you recognize the number?"

He shook his head. "No idea. Whoever it was didn't leave any messages either."

"Then it wasn't the school calling about his absences," Chitanda concluded. "So they must have been informed that Oreki-san wouldn't be coming to school…"

"Maybe the number is written down somewhere? Someone calling so frequently must mean it's important," Mayaka theorized.

"There's a contact book here, next to the phone," Chitanda chirped.

"And a phone bill on the table in there, too," Satoshi added, nodding towards the table on the other side of the couch. "I saw it earlier."

"We're already breaking the law," Mayaka sighed, heading around to the other side of the couch. "Why not add the Federal offense of opening someone else's mail* to the list?" She pulled out the bill as she sat down on the couch. "What's the number, Chii-chan?"

"Uhm… The last four digits are 8725."

"I'll check the kitchen, then," Satoshi spoke as he turned back to the other room for the second time in ten minutes.

"It's not in here," Chitanda sighed. "Too bad… That might have made this a little easier…"

"But it _is _listed on the phone bill!" Mayaka suddenly exclaimed.

"_Hontouni?" _ Satoshi was immediately looking over her shoulder at the bill as was Chitanda, as he had yet to make it more than two steps into the kitchen.

Mayaka nodded. "See? Right here – it's the same number, but this time the conversation lasted for a couple of minutes."

"So someone must have picked up the phone that time," Chitanda declared. "When was that phone call?"

"Five days ago – the last day of the month; the posting date for the bill is only three…"

"Five days," Chitanda mused. "Wasn't that about when Oreki-san mentioned the strange call from an uncle he didn't know?"

"You're right!" Satoshi exclaimed.

"Do you think it has something to do with why they left?" Mayaka asked, eyes wide.

"But if they left because of him," Chitanda reasoned, "why would he still be trying to call them?"

"Unless," Mayaka's face darkened. "Unless this person is someone they don't want to meet with. Maybe… Maybe he's not actually related? Or he did something to them in the past to hurt them?" She shook her head. "Or maybe he's just the uncle that mooches off of everyone and never pays them back. My family has an uncle like that…"

"Somehow I don't think that would be reason enough to run," Satoshi countered. "But regardless… the two things might not even be related. Let's keep it in mind but not jump to conclusions just yet." He turned back the kitchen – _again – _as the two girls nodded, Mayaka folding the bill back up and placing it back in the envelope on the table. He hadn't made it far into the next room, however, before he stopped short next the kitchen table.

"Hey, guys… I think I know why Houtaro and Tomoe-san didn't answer their cell phones." The two girls turned to him as he held up four, slim, electronic devices, two in each hand, for them to see. "They never had the chance."

_~Postcards from Nowhere~_


	3. Chapter 2 Pieces

**A/N:** Not much to say this time except that I dreamed that the sixth light novel of Koten Bu comes out on June 16th and a second season of the anime starts on September 2nd... It was the best dream ever until I woke up and realized it was only a dream...

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/faved/added to alerts! Seriously, one reviewer actually gave me an idea that I am now going to use. (:

Also, on a side note, this mystery isn't as much a 'whodunit', and more of a 'whatsthemotive'.

This is also the last chapter that Houtarou doesn't make an appearance. He'll be back in the next one though. (:

Disclaimer: I just said that I dreamed about more coming out... If I owned it, that wouldn't be a dream.

**Have fun playing Detective. And Good Luck! ;)**

* * *

_Chapter Two  
__Pieces_

"Fukube-san, you kept the key to Oreki-san's house after we searched it, right?" Eru inquired the following day as he entered the club room.

"Hai. Why do you ask?"

"I was thinking about going by there again. Maybe there was something we missed? Now that we have a few clues…"

Satoshi frowned, digging the key out of his school bag. "I'd volunteer to come with you, but I actually only came up to say that I have to be at Student Council today. Maybe Mayaka –."

"I can't either," said girl interrupted from behind him. "I just came up to say I have to be at Manga Society. Gomen, Chii-chan."

Eru smiled at the pair as she took the key. "Don't worry. I'll let you both know if I find anything." Hurrying out of the room before the other two had a chance to respond, she quickly exited the school, retrieved her bike from the rack, and started off for the Oreki home.

On her bike, going alone, the trip didn't take as long as the time before – or at least that was the way it seemed to her. Leaving her bike next to the one Houtarou had left behind, she continued to the front door, unlocking it quickly, and slipped inside. Everything still looked just the way it had the day before. Taking a deep breath, she started up the stairs. The silence unnerved her; Houtarou may not have been a talkative person, but the house still seemed eerily silent, as if it held a dark secret – which, considering the clues they had picked up, may not have been far from the truth.

Approaching her friend's bedroom door, Eru couldn't help but hesitate. Despite the fact that he wasn't here, she still felt like she was intruding on his personal space, what with most of his belongings still inside. Taking a deep breath, she pushed his door open.

Just like the rest of the house, nothing had changed from the day before. Houtarou's school uniform hung on a peg in the wall, a few other items of clothing littered the floor; all in all, the room was fairly neat and tidy. His school bag sat innocently on the floor next to his desk, and, though there were still wrinkles in the blankets, it appeared as though he had at least attempted to make his bed.

Eru sighed. What exactly had she come hoping to find? As she moved around his room, she searched for anything that seemed out of place – yet she wondered if she would actually notice any such thing since she had never even been to his home before this mess, much less been _in _his room. There were no photos or posters or other personal touches one might expect; the room was rather bland, if she were honest. The most colorful part of the room was the bookcase, a variety of bright bindings beckoning her to explore the contents. She shook her head, stepping away. Maybe in the future she would actually have time, but right now she had more important things to think about.

Scanning the contents of his desk did little to help the situation; the drawers and top held nothing out of the ordinary, either. A few random papers, pens, pencils… nothing that could be taken as a clue to their owner's whereabouts. Absently, she picked up the novel that lay on the floor next to his bed. Had he been reading it before he disappeared? Perhaps late at night when he couldn't sleep? Looking over the cover, it wasn't the one he'd had in the club room the last day he had been present. But if he wasn't reading it, why was it on the floor instead of on the bookcase? Reaching over to where his school bag sat, she unzipped it and rummaged through the contents until she found what she was looking for: the book she had last seen him with in the club room, place still marked at about the half-way point. She frowned. Why would he have started reading something else? Unless he wasn't reading it… But then it made no sense as to why it was lying on the floor next to his bed instead of sitting on the bookcase like the rest.

Unless…

Her deep violet eyes widened. Sitting on the floor, she dug her phone out of her bag and scrolled through the contacts. "Mayaka-chan!" she spoke excitedly as soon at the other person answered. "I remember you saying how you read Christie, right? So you would recognize the title _And Then There Were None,_ right? What's it about?"

"Whoa, Chii-chan! Slow down; I can't follow where this is going… I thought you went over to the Orekis'? Why such excitement over a mystery novel all of a sudden?"

"I think it might be a clue! Just tell me what it's about, please, Mayaka-chan!"

"I will, but you have to promise you'll explain after."

"Hai!"

"Okay. Well, the best way I can think of to summarize it would be that ten people are invited to this island, and, one by one, someone kills them off. The thing is, they know the killer has to be one of them because no one else is on the island, but by the end of the novel, any of them had yet to know who it was. It's quite the mystery; when you get down to the last three people alive and, while two of them are in each other's presence the third dies, it truly makes you wonder what's going on…"

Eru was silent for a moment. "So, even in the end, no one really understand what was going on?"

"No one but the murderer. Chii-chan, what is this all about?"

"I'm… not sure… I thought it might be a clue, but now I think maybe I'm wrong… You see, it seemed out of place to me, sitting on the floor by Oreki-san's bed, when everything else is really pretty orderly, and it's not the same book I saw him reading that last day we saw him." She sighed. "I guess I was just hoping I'd found something worthwhile…"

"_Chottomatte_," Mayaka responded. "You might actually be onto something, Chii-chan…"

"_Hontouni?"_

"Hai… As much as I hate to admit it, Oreki is smarter than most people give him credit…"

"Do you think he knew we'd come looking?"

"Maybe. If he did, I think he'd have left some indication of what was going on since, for some reason, he obviously isn't allowed to contact us – unless _he doesn't know what's going on either!"_

Eru gasped. "Just like in the book, you mean? No one knew what was going on…"

"Exactly. Maybe he didn't have any idea what was going on, why his family was packing up and leaving, just like that…" A pause in which Eru could hear her friend sigh on the other end of the line. "Unfortunately, Chii-chan, it also means the end of the line for us."

"What do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious? If Oreki didn't even know why he had to leave, how are we supposed to find out? We can't go any further without Oreki here – and I get the feeling we aren't going to be seeing him anymore. _Sumimasen, _Chii-chan."

* * *

Eru had never felt so defeated in her life. Houtarou had always – although grudgingly at first – been there to solve everything she had brought to him. She had taken him for granted. And now he was gone – possibly forever. Just like that. Gone without a trace.

So lost was she in her thoughts as she locked the door and started for home that she very nearly ran into a man as she rounded the corner walking away from the Orekis' front door. Stopping short, eyes wide, she hastily gave her apology.

The man chuckled softly. "Think nothing of it. I was hardly paying any mind to my feet either." He paused. "Say, you don't live there now, do you?"

"Huh?" The question – a rather strange one in her mind – took her completely off guard. "No, I – I don't." Eru looked wistfully back towards the house. "I friend of mine does – or did, at least. They left suddenly… I don't know when – or if – they'll be returning…"

"I see. That's really too bad."

"Hai." She turned back to the man. "Uhm… I don't mean to be impolite, but I'm curious as to why you wondered if I lived there?"

The man smiled. "When I came by and no one was home, I wondered if I had the correct address. This is the Oreki residence, right?"

Eru nodded. "May I ask why you were looking for them?"

"I happen to be acquainted with the family," he responded. "Since I was passing through Kamiyama, I just thought I'd stop by but… I wasn't aware they were leaving, you see, and Houtarou-kun didn't say anything about not being here when I spoke to him on the phone." He shrugged. "Well, guess I won't stay in town any longer – no reason to now. Arigato, miss." With the tipping of his wide-brimmed hat, he started off down the street, hands buried deep in the pockets of his trench coat despite the pleasant weather.

As she watched him leave, Eru couldn't help but feel relieved that she didn't know where Houtarou was. The man had seemed nice enough, but something just didn't quite feel right. She shook her head, turning in the opposite direction from the man to start her journey home.

* * *

She couldn't stop thinking about it – _any _of it. The sudden leave, the cell phones left behind, the mystery novel on the floor, the strange man outside the Orekis' home. It swirled in her mind, and, no matter what she did, she just couldn't stop thinking about it.

But the worst part of it all was knowing she couldn't do anything about it. The only person who could ever satisfy her curiosity was now the _source _of her curiosity.

And she, Chitanda Eru, was powerless to figure out why.

"It doesn't quite add up to me," Satoshi mused, breaking through her thoughts. "If Houtarou thought to leave some obscure clue, then why didn't he just spell it out for us?"

"I wondered that too," Mayaka sighed. "But, then again, nothing is really making sense right now, so why should that either?"

Then it donned on her. "Maybe he couldn't…"

The other two heads in the room swiveled to stare at Eru. "Why do you say that, Chii-chan?"

"Well, I don't know for sure but… What if he was afraid of someone else searching the house besides us? That would be a good reason to not spell it out…"

"He'd have no reason to think that if he didn't know what was going on either, but, just for a second, let's assume that could be true."

"If you knew someone else might search the house, why leave an obvious clue? To someone who doesn't know Oreki-san, it might not seem strange for a mystery novel to be lying on the floor next to his bed, no matter how tidy the rest of the room is… But someone who knows what he was reading…"

"Might find it strange and out of place, like you did," Mayaka finished. "I suppose that could be true. But why would someone else have reason to search his house?"

"For the same reason we did." All heads turned to Satoshi now, the boy's face completely serious. "Think about it: When he disappeared so suddenly, our first thought was to check out his house, wasn't it? Going back to your phone theory, Mayaka, what if they left because that person was after them for some reason? When wouldn't he, too, search their house for clues to their whereabouts?"

"Hm. I hadn't thought about it that way. But why would someone be after them in the first place?"

"I don't know," Satoshi sighed. "I'm just the Database, remember?"

"I definitely think you're right, Fukube-san," Eru declared. "As I was leaving yesterday, I ran into a man outside the Orekis' house who was looking for them."

Mayaka's eyes grew wide. "You didn't tell him anything, did you?"

She shook her head. "Just that they had left."

"What else did he say?"

"That he was an acquaintance of the family and that he had talked to Oreki-san on the phone."

Mayaka's eyes grew wider, as did Satoshi's. "That phone call…"

"That's what I thought too, but it seemed like he must know them fairly well. He called Oreki-san by his first name…"

"Houtarou did say that he talked to someone claiming to be a relative – if they really are running from that guy, he might have been trying to make you think that there isn't any hostility between them."

"Is it really possible they left just to get away from that man?" Eru mused. "That seems awfully extreme. He must have really hurt them somehow, if that's the case…"

Mayaka shook her head sadly. "Whether it is or it isn't, I think that Oreki is the only one who can solve this mystery; we've run out of clues."

Eru pulled a novel from her bag. "But… if he really did leave this as a clue, then maybe..."

"It doesn't matter if he did; we don't have anything to go on, Chii-chan."

"Maybe there's something more we missed…" Eru muttered, absently flipping through the pages.

Mayaka frowned. "I don't know what it could possibly be…"

Eru gasped, instantly drawing the others' attentions. With a smile, she triumphantly held up a folded piece of paper.

Mayaka's mouth dropped open slightly. "Nani…?"

Satoshi smiled slightly. "So he _did _spell it out for us…"

Quickly unfolding the paper, Eru scanned the contents, her expression falling with every word that she read. When she had finished, she passed it to Mayaka, who passed it to Satoshi after reading the note's contents.

_Minna,_

_I hope this note finds you, though if it does, it means I was unable to contact you myself for some reason. As soon as I walked through the door after school, my father was here waiting to tell me to hurry and pack because we were leaving as soon as possible. I don't know what's going on here – I don't even know where we're going; all I know is that there is something they aren't telling me – something that, for some reason, they don't want me to know. Either that or it really is a long story that I'll find out after we leave; I really don't know at this point._

_Satoshi, Chitanda-san, Ibara; I'll contact you as soon as I can. I promise.  
__Oreki Houtarou_

Satoshi frowned. "He wasn't sure he'd be able to contact us right away. Why, I wonder…"

"He promised to contact us," Eru whispered. "So what happened that he had to break that promise?"

Mayaka put a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder. "Who said he has? Oreki said _as soon as I can._ Maybe he just hasn't had the opportunity."

"If that's the case, then what is keeping him from doing so, Mayaka-chan?" Eru shook her head. "Something tells me that he hasn't because he can't. For some reason, he just _can't_ – for the same reason he had to leave, and for the same reason his whole family left their cell phones behind. There's something here that we're all missing – including Oreki-kun. For some reason, he can't – no, more like _he isn't allowed _to contact us."

"But… why?"

Satoshi sighed. "Now there's the mystery…"

* * *

_~Puzzle Pieces That Don't Fit Together~_


	4. Chapter 3 Enigma

**A/N: **I apologize for this taking longer than it should have (even though it didn't take that long...). I never get anything written on weekends anymore... If you watch Shingeki no Kyojin and Suisei no Gargantia and read the manga for Fairy Tail, you probably understand why. I'm too busy freaking out about *mass spoilers for all three* that I can't concetrate on my own plotline... (which is increasingly annoying...)

Anywho, a huge THANK YOU to those of you who reviewed and/or added to faves and/or alerts! Even in the midst of my freaking out about *mass spoilers for all three* those keep me wanting to work on this. (:

Also, kudos to you if you know were I got the first line of the the chapter - I just couldn't help myself. (:

Disclaimer: When you have to wait for the subbed versions to come out, that obviously means you don't own something originally written in Japanese.

**Have fun playing Detective. And Good Luck! ;)**

* * *

_Chapter Three  
__Enigma_

_I hate this city._

Houtarou shook his head, staring out the classroom window. _Iie; that's not quite right. It's more 'I hate not knowing why I have to live in this city when my life is back in Kamiyama.'_

Watching the clouds float across the blue sky outside, absently spinning his pen between his fingers, he couldn't help but wonder at the situation. He had been at his new school for a week already but his parents had yet to give the promised explanation to their sudden move. That in itself was strange; when something happened that concerned the whole family, his level-headed father never failed to give an explanation – until now, anyway. What made it worse was the vague memory echoing in the back of his mind; no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to grasp it or, at the very least, comprehend its significance, but it was there, nagging at his subconscious nonetheless. The more he tried to catch it, the further out of his reach it seemed to move. He found it almost infuriating.

"Oreki-san!"

Someone loudly whispering his name brought him out of his thoughts with a start. Only then did he realize that his teacher was giving him the death glare. He quickly stood, his heart leaping into his throat at the same moment. "Hai?"

"I would greatly appreciate your attention during class, Oreki-san," the man snipped. "You are not here to live in your own little world. And it might help your grades if you were to actually pay attention like you should. Understood?"

"Hai, Sensei."

The man nodded curtly before calling on another student to answer the question he had posed only a moment before as Houtarou sat back down. He really needed to stop thinking about this so much – he was probably over-thinking it, anyway. Even five hundred miles away, it seemed that Chitanda was still affecting him.

And yet…

And yet, just like her, he couldn't stop thinking about it. He couldn't stop thinking about the feeling he had that his family was hiding something from him. They were a family; they should be able to tell him something that concerned the whole family, couldn't they? As hard as he tried, he simply couldn't make heads or tails of it. He was missing something important… But what?

A piece of folded paper landing on his desk startled him out of his thoughts once again. Discreetly unfolding it (he was in enough trouble as it was for spacing out), he read the note before replying and flicking it back across the aisle to its owner.

_Dude, is something wrong?_

_Nothing, why do you ask?_

_You space out more than anyone I know… I get that school is boring but… Seriously, what's wrong?_

Houtarou debated telling him what was going on – but did he know enough to be able to actually explain it to someone? After all, he didn't really understand what was going on either.

_I'll tell you later._

_At lunch break then?_

_Fine._

_Good. :)_

With a silent sigh, he folded the paper up again and shoved it into his uniform coat pocket before the teacher had a chance to see it. The last thing he needed was to get into trouble for a second time in ten minutes, after all. And now, of course, he was dreading the lunch break. _Darn that Yoshino-san, _he thought. _Why does he have to go and pry into the life of someone he's only known for all of a week?_

And yet he found that he wasn't really _that _irritated by his classmate – if he were honest, he was glad to have someone to talk to at school; he had gotten so used to Satoshi and Ibara and Chitanda… He frowned, wondering if they had even noticed his absence. He was sure Satoshi would have, Ibara more than likely wouldn't until Satoshi pointed it out, Chitanda… He didn't know at all if she would have noticed or not. She was observant, it was true, but what was he to her? Someone to solve mysteries… He sighed. She probably wouldn't notice until she had something that needed solved…

His frown deepened. It was strange – for once Chitanda didn't have to bring him a mystery; he already had one to solve for himself. Was this what she felt when she came to him about her uncle? Something she just couldn't let drop because it meant too much to her… But this time was different – not just because the mystery was his own, but because he was alone this time to solve it.

And he wasn't at all convinced he could do it alone either. Whether it was Chitanda's sharp senses, Satoshi's endless information, or even Ibara's ability to point out the obvious, he couldn't have done it without them. But now they weren't here, and he wasn't allowed to contact them – why, he still didn't know. Which only brought him back to his mystery.

Why did his family suddenly pack up and leave Kamiyama?

"Yo, Oreki-san…"

The hand suddenly waving back and forth in front of his face brought Houtarou back with a start for the third time that morning. He looked up at the lopsided grin on his classmate's face. "It's lunch break, and you promised."

He sighed. "I'm not sure you'll understand, Yoshino-san…"

The other boy cocked his head to the side, black bangs falling into his eyes. "Try me."

The two boys moved to the courtyard, finally plopping down on the ground under a tree away from most of the other students on lunch break. The two sat in silence for some time, eating their lunches. But, to Houtarou's displeasure, they both finished with time to spare before classes resumed for the afternoon.

"So?" Yoshino cocked an eyebrow. "What's eatin' ya?"

Houtarou sighed. "How do I put this? ….Where I lived before I had a very curious friend. When something happened, she always came to me to solve these riddles she had found. Let's just say, she's rubbed off on me."

"Not sure I understand where this is going…"

"It has everything to do with what's bugging me. Just bear with me."

"Okay."

"I ended up with a bit of a reputation because of this – even got used at one point because everything she brought to me, I would get lucky enough to solve. But this is one mystery that, no matter how hard I think about it, I can't figure out." He shook his head. "Lady Luck isn't on my side this time…"

"That's what has you spacing out all the time in class. Ya know, I've read a lot of mystery, Oreki-san. Maybe I can help? What's this mystery of yours?"

He sighed again, deciding how he should go about telling it. In the end, he decided on the simplest way. "Why did my family – with no explanation to me – just pack up suddenly and move away?"

Yoshino stared at him. "Huh?"

Houtarou gave a wry smile. "I actually can't tell you any more than that – I honestly don't know myself. And that's what's driving me crazy. It just doesn't make sense to pack up and move for no reason – especially after the start of the term – but I've been given no reason from my parents either."

"Strange…"

"You're telling me…" Houtarou sighed again. "What's even stranger, though, is that I'm not allowed to contact any of my friends in Kamiyama – I had to leave my phone behind at the old house, even. Nothing makes any sense…"

"Have you asked about it?"

He nodded. "They always have some excuse as to why they don't have time to explain."

"Sounds to me like they're avoiding it. Maybe something happened? With their jobs or something?"

"I would know if it had to do with their jobs. They travel a lot for some international company, and both of them are already talking about where they're going next. They wouldn't be wasting money to travel just to throw me off." Houtarou shook his head. "Besides, the last time something happened with my dad's job, he was very open about it with both me and my sister. There has to be something else."

"Did anything unusual happen right before the move?"

Houtarou glanced at his classmate before returning his gaze to the ground in front of him, his ever-present frown deepening in concentration. Absently, his fingers began to pull at his bangs. "Not especially," he muttered after a moment.

"Nothing that brought an odd reaction from your family?"

He continued to pull at his bangs. "The only thing that was odd was my mom coming home early – which never happens – but that was because we were moving…" _Think, Houtarou! _He scolded himself. _There has to be something you're missing!_ "There was really nothing odd," he groaned, defeated.

Yoshino glanced at his watch, also sighing. "Well, keep thinking about it, Oreki-san – though probably not anymore in class… Let's get back."

Nodding, he stood up and silently followed his classmate back into the building.

* * *

Houtarou flopped down, defeated, onto his bed, eyes drifting closed. The day had felt longer than normal – more than likely because he couldn't concentrate which was constantly getting him into trouble – and he was glad to finally be home. Unfortunately, he didn't really have time to be lying there, and he didn't have time to think about his mystery, either, with the homework that loaded his school bag; he groaned just thinking about it. But he knew he wouldn't get it done either, for the same reason he hadn't gotten any of it done during classes: His thoughts were preoccupied and his curiosity refused to be pushed aside for the academic.

So until he found this important piece that he was fairly certain was buried within his memories, his homework was going to have to wait.

His fingers habitually began to pull at his bangs as he searched his memories for that all-allusive missing piece; he knew it was there – he could sense it, somehow – but he just couldn't grasp it. Something happened – something important – but when? He sat up, resting his forehead on his hands, his elbows on his knees.

What was he missing? Something unusual before the move…

No – it wasn't necessarily something _before _the move… The move itself was strange, after all. _Okay, Houtarou, sort this out. You've done it before._ What was strange about it? How sudden it was, to be sure, and he was never given an explanation.

Then it hit him. _This isn't the first time you've moved somewhere far away in the middle of a term._ But, back then, in the middle of his last year of elementary school, he'd been given an explanation for it. They had moved because it was required of his father for his job.

_Chottomatte…_

His father traveled the world-over anyway. It was true that the first town they lived in didn't have a corporate office, but then neither did Kamiyama. It wouldn't make sense that, if they had moved because of his father's job, that they would move to a city without an office still. He traveled so he never needed to be in a city with an office, anyway, so there would never be a reason to move unless he switched jobs. And if that had been the case either time, they surely would have told him as much… Then what was the real reason they moved the first time, five years ago? Had it just been an excuse then? So many years ago, when he was younger, he certainly wouldn't have questioned that reason. But now… Had they known he would question it and so that was why they hadn't given him a reason at all?

It was the only explanation that made any sense.

But the question still remained: Why had they moved?

_And why is no one being honest with me?_

Standing up and making his way to his bedroom door, he decided it was time to have a little chat with his sis. And this time he wasn't going to leave her room without some answers. He softly made his way down the hall, knocking on her door and waiting for her to tell him to come in before opening it. Closing the door behind him, he crossed the room and sat in her desk chair as she took up the entirety of her bed as she was sprawled out, reading some magazine or other that Houtarou didn't care about.

She glanced up, eyebrow raised, as he sat down. "What's up, little brother?"

He took a deep breath, steeling himself. "I want some answers," he replied softly.

"Oh?" Tomoe's eyebrow arched higher. "What about?"

"Why we moved."

"Houtarou, we've talked about this…"

"No," he interrupted bluntly, "we haven't! You, Mom, Dad – you all avoid it! I want to know why we moved so suddenly."

Tomoe sighed. "It's a long, complicated story, but the short version is that it had to do with Dad's job."

"You're lying."

"Nani?"

"Don't give me that bull, Aneki. You contradict yourself when you do. _You, _after all, were the one who told me years ago that neither of our parents would ever be required to move unless they changed jobs, remember? I didn't ever want to leave my friends, and you told me I had nothing to worry about. And I know they haven't changed jobs – Mom is headed up to Tokyo in the morning, and Dad is flying to somewhere in America next week. I want to know why we moved, Aneki – both a week ago, and five years ago."

Tomoe sighed, closing her eyes briefly before looking back up at her brother. "You sure you really want the truth?"

"Hai."

"I'm not sure you do."

"_Aneki! _ Please! It's been driving me insane – I need to know – I _deserve _to know, don't I?" He found himself standing, leaning forward, his voice involuntarily rising in volume with each word he spoke. "I'm part of this family, so why am I the only one who doesn't know?!"

"Because of you!" she calmly cut into his rant.

His eyes widened slightly, breath catching in his throat. "Nani?"

"We moved because of _you, _little brother. Happy now that you know the truth?"

Houtarou sat down heavily and leaned back in the chair, stunned. What was she saying? It didn't make sense…

_Because of… me?_

* * *

_~Time Will Remember~_


	5. Chapter 4 Buried Beneath

**A/N: **I apologize in advance for 1. this chapter, and 2. this chapter taking so darn long to be posted. The second can be explained by the first: I have been fighting with his chapter for the past month, trying to make it better, and, well... This is as good as it gets, and, quite frankly, I'm not sure I like it. At all. Which is why it's so freaking short. BUT it gets across what it needs to, so it'll do.

I promise you that next chapter will be better.

That being said, reviews last chapter... I FRIGGIN LOVE YOU PEOPLE. Enjoy a free Internet cookie with this chapter. (:

Disclaimer: Do I really need this? Yes? Fine. I'm still holding out to get the rights for Christmas, though.

Have fun playing Detective. And Good Luck! ;)

* * *

_Chapter Four  
__Buried Beneath_

The dawn came much earlier than Houtarou would have liked. Not only had his homework not been finished, but he had gotten very little sleep either, his mind consumed by his sister's words. As the sun rose higher into the sky, illuminating first his white ceiling then the walls, he wanted nothing more than to be able to fall asleep. Glancing at the clock, he saw that falling asleep now would actually be pointless – he had to get up for school in less than thirty minutes. He groaned, rolling onto his side. All he wanted to do was sleep, but, even if he still had time, his thoughts were restless, keeping his mind from letting him relax enough to do so.

Talking to his sister had to have been the worst mistake of his life. At least before, he could still fall asleep at night. Now, the mystery had yet to be solved _and _it was interfering with his sleep. True it gave him another piece of the puzzle, but that alone wasn't enough. There were still too many pieces missing, and the few he had only served to confuse him as he turned them around and around only to feel like he had been left with less than he had started with.

He still couldn't make heads or tails of anything. He couldn't wrap his head around what his sister had told him. He had tried to deny it – she only said that to get him off her back – but then he would realize she would have no reason to do that – or would she? Was his sister really that cruel? To turn the blame on him just to get him to stop asking about it? And what reason would she have to give an excuse like that if it weren't true? No – he knew she was telling the truth.

But then what did that mean for him? If they truly moved because of him… He couldn't fathom why that would be. He was still missing something important – something he felt he should know, maybe buried in his memories – but he could not, for anything, figure out what it could be.

His alarm chose that moment to go off, making Houtarou wish even more that he could just fall asleep. He pushed himself up with a groan, turning off the alarm, and rubbing his eyes that burned from lack of sleep. At least it was Saturday so he would only have to keep from falling asleep for half the day – not that he thought he was capable of falling asleep with his mind as jumbled as it was.

He finally coaxed himself to stand up despite his exhaustion and immediately sat back down, head resting on one hand while the other steadied him against the bed, trying to get the world to stop spinning. Taking a few deep breathes, he waited until the floor wasn't tilting under him anymore before standing up more slowly, one hand tightly gripping the headboard of his bed.

A knock sounded on his door, prompting him to glance at the clock: He was going to be late if he didn't hurry.

"Little brother, you up yet? You're going to be late for school."

As he moved towards the door to prove to his sister that he was, indeed, out of bed, he had it decided for him that he wasn't going to school that day when he almost fell flat on his face. He groaned, flopping back down onto his bed, forearm falling over his eyes.

"Houtarou?"

He only groaned again, not wishing to waste the energy to respond. The door opened; soft footfalls followed on the hardwood floor; a hand pushed his arm over and rested on his brow. He could hear the frown in her voice when she spoke again.

"You don't feel warm at all…"

He finally picked his feet back up off the floor and rolled over to face the wall. "Didn't sleep well," he muttered. "Don't feel well…" _And it's your fault…_

"Hmmm." He could feel Tomoe's eyes staring at his back. "Okay. I'll tell Dad, then…"

Houtarou wasn't about to protest – it saved him from falling down the stairs, after all, which was most likely what would have happened. He could feel her gaze linger on him for a moment longer before exiting the room, leaving the door slightly ajar, and heading back down to the main floor. Her voice drifted up to him and, a moment later, there was another knock on the door followed shortly by someone sitting down next to him on the bed.

"Houtarou? What's wrong?"

Straight to the point, like always. "Just don't feel very well," he muttered. "Got really dizzy when I stood up; head kinda hurts…"

"Tomoe said you told her you didn't sleep well last night." Houtarou nodded. "That's probably why." His father sighed. "Well, I guess it's all right if you miss today since it's only a half day, anyway. Get some sleep."

Houtarou nodded again though he knew he probably wouldn't get much. There were just too many things going on in his head – if he could just make those thoughts stop long enough to fall asleep for a few hours, maybe he could actually find some answers. As it was, he could hardly think straight, much less solve his puzzle.

He felt the bed rise as he father stood up, but before he left the room, he spoke again. "Houtarou, is there anything in particular that's been stressing you out lately? Something that's been keeping you awake at night?"

How was he supposed to answer that? Of course there was something going on, but no one was willing to give him any concrete answers! He settled for nodding in response and, a moment later, felt the bed sink next to him again.

"Anything you want to talk about? It might help."

Houtarou felt like bursting out into laughter. Of course he wanted to talk about it! _But if I told you what's bothering me, _he thought wryly, _would you still want to talk about it? I think not._ He opened his mouth to respond before closing it again. Sighing, he decided it was worth a shot even if he already knew it would be in vain. "If you thought someone was keeping something important from you, and they refuse to talk to you or keep telling you any excuse to not give you a straight answer, what would you do?"

His father sighed, and Houtarou had an idea that he knew to what he was referring. The answer proved him correct. "There's nothing to tell, Houtarou."

"Yeah. Sure."

He could hear his father sigh again – probably running his hand through his hair, too. "Look, I have to get to work." _Typical excuse. _"But, please, take my word for it: You're better off not knowing what happened sixteen years ago. Let it go, Houtarou. It's better this way."

He laid awake for what felt like hours more after his father had left only to glance at the clock to discover only twenty minutes had passed. With a groan, he slowly sat back up again, slowly moved back onto his feet, hoping beyond all hope that he could make it to the bathroom before collapsing to the floor. He really needed to take a leak, and, if he were lucky, he might be able to find something in the medicine cabinet to help him fall asleep. Keeping one hand on the wall for balance, he didn't have a problem – and he was in luck. With how often his parents crossed time zones, sleep aids were practically a necessity so he wasn't particularly surprised – but he _was _grateful.

_Why didn't I think of this sooner?_ he wondered as he knocked back a dose with some water.

He was sound asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow again.

* * *

With slowly returning consciousness, unwanted thoughts returned as well, chasing each other around in never-ending circles once again. He didn't want to wake up yet, but it seemed he didn't really have a choice in the matter – his system had already decided for him, and he wasn't pleased. He didn't want to wake up yet; he didn't want to think about what was going on. All he wanted to do was forget that anything had happened.

But that, unfortunately, wasn't an option.

A quiet knock sounded on his door. Eyes still closed, he grunted at a volume that he hoped would get across that he was awake but grudgingly so. It must have worked because he heard the door open and someone come in. When several seconds of silence passed, he grudgingly cracked one eye open to see what was going on. Standing above him, his sister was staring down at him intently.

"If there was nothing you wanted," he groaned, closing his eye, "then go away…"

"Your friend stopped by," she stated. "Yoshino-san was it? Brought by your make-up work."

"Oh." Silence. He sighed. "Again, if there was nothing you wanted…"

"What? You don't want the company of your beautiful sister?"

"No," he replied flatly, "I don't. Go away."

He could feel her staring at him for a moment longer before leaving, closing the door softly behind her. He sighed in relief – talking to her was the last thing he wanted after the last time. And yet he almost wished she would have stayed… At least then his mind had something else to focus on besides the obvious lies and half-truths he had, until recently, accepted as fact. He wasn't sure he knew what the truth was anymore when it came to his family. What was real and what was fake?

Sleepily opening his eyes, he sat up and glanced over at the folder on his desk – more homework that would more than likely go undone. He ran a hand through his tousled hair. He had never had better than average grades, and now he was falling behind. If he didn't find a way to start getting his course work done, everything would spiral even further out of control. This wasn't how he had envisioned finishing high school – but then again, he hadn't envisioned any of this either.

Rubbing the grit out of his eyes with the heel of his hand, he slipped out of bed and sat down at his desk. As he opened the folder, his phone buzzed next to him. Glancing at the screen, he somehow wasn't surprised at the sender.

_Oreki! Just so you know, I claimed you as my partner for that history project since you were gone – we got a boring topic though…_

He quickly tapped back his reply, asking the topic, before pretending to return to his homework while waiting for Yoshino to reply. It didn't take long for his phone to vibrate mercilessly. He quickly snatched it up off the surface of his desk, opening the message as he did so.

_1973 oil crisis. Boring right? We couldn't have gotten a war or something fun like that…_

Houtarou frowned, stating at the screen, seeing the response but neither reading it nor truly thinking about it. Setting his phone down, message still displayed on the screen, his mind wandered back to his all-allusive mystery but, more than that, the conversation with his friend from the day before. _Something that happened that brought an odd reaction from his family before the move…_ Something he was missing… Something… But what? A... crisis of some kind? Something that somehow connected to some event that happened the year he was born…

He groaned. It was driving him insane! He needed someone to talk to… Someone who might have noticed something he hadn't – someone in Kamiyama. In other words, someone he wasn't allowed to talk to anymore.

"Screw this," he muttered, picking up his phone and dialing an all-too familiar number. The person on the other end picked up after the second ring. "Satoshi? It's me…"

* * *

_~Requiem for Silence~_


	6. Chapter 5 Circles

**A/N: **I like this chapter better than the last... Even if it is still pretty short.

_On another note:_ Don't shoot me when I don't update again for a very long while. I'm about to head back to college (I leave Thursday) so I won't have as much time to work on this.

Those of you who reviewed last chapter? Yeah, you know who you are! I love you guys! :D

If you understand the clue at the end without having to google it, then you are probably amazing. ;)

Disclaimer: Hm. Yeah, definitely don't own it...

* * *

_Chapter Five  
__Circles_

Satoshi glanced up from his novel when the default ringtone started to play from his phone. Picking it up from his desk, he frowned at the number on the screen. Normally, he wouldn't pick up if it wasn't a number in his contacts (or at least one he recognized), but… He sighed. _It could be Houtarou…_

He pressed the talk button with his thumb. "Moshimoshi."

"Satoshi? It's me."

He almost fell off of his chair. "Houtarou?!"

"Yeah. Look, I'm sorry I haven't –."

"We know," Satoshi interrupted. "You couldn't."

"Then you found my note?"

"Yeah. Almost didn't though… Houtarou, what's going on? Where are you?"

A sigh on the other end. "I can't talk long – I'm not supposed to be talking to you at all, and if my parents find out… Well, I won't have my phone anymore."

"Houtarou…"

"I can't tell you, Satoshi. I'm not allowed to tell you where I am, and I can't tell you what's going on because I don't know myself. That's why I called. I need your help – everyone's help."

Satoshi's eyebrows rose. "Name it. You know we'll help if we can."

Another sigh. "Good. Okay. All I know is that something happened sixteen years ago. Something that even my sister knows about, but I don't. I'm missing something – some clue that'll solve everything. All I know is that something happened sixteen years ago, that we've moved twice _because of me._ I can't think straight right now… I know I'm missing something, though…"

Satoshi frowned. Had he ever heard his friend so distraught before? "Well, when we went to your house – sorry for the searching thing, by the way – we did come up with a theory…" He paused. "Do you remember that day before you left when you told us about that phone call from an uncle you'd never met?"

"I remember."

"We went there a couple of days later and, thanks to the phone bill on the table, we think he was the same person that had called seventeen times more in those couple of days. He didn't leave any messages, but the number was still there from the missed calls."

"_Nani?"_

"And when Chitanda-san went back the following day, she said she met some strange guy outside at the end of the driveway who was looking for your family. Do you think it's connected?" Silence. "…Houtarou?" More silence. He pulled the phone away from his ear and glanced at the screen. _Call ended._ "Houtarou… What happened?"

* * *

"… And then he either lost service, or someone must've been headed his way, because the call was ended. And I'm willing to bet it was the latter since he didn't call me back."

"What do we do then?" Eru asked. "It's not like we have anything to go on, especially since Oreki-san doesn't seem to know any more than we do…"

"It has to be connected somehow, though," Mayaka mused. "It's too big of a coincidence. Somehow that call must have prompted the move… It has something to do with Oreki… He's the one who answered the phone that day… And that strange man Chii-chan ran into outside his house…"

"But the call was from someone he didn't even know," Satoshi pointed out.

"Then his family must be trying to protect him from his 'uncle' for some reason."

Eru sighed. "We've figured that much out in the past. But _why?"_

"Just like Houtarou," Satoshi muttered. "We're missing something… Something that's probably right in front of our noses, too…"

A knock sounded on the door of the club room before a third-year student stuck his head through the doorway. "Fukube! Did you forget again?" he sighed. "Student Council room. _Now."_

Satoshi almost fell out of his chair. "Dang it!" He scooped up his bag. "Gomenne! Mata ne!" he shouted as he sprinted out the door.

Mayaka blinked. "What do you suppose _that _was all about?"

"Hm." Eru shrugged. "Hard to say when it comes to Fukube-san."

* * *

Satoshi sighed as he made his way down the empty hall. "Who'd have thought that was going to take so long? Had I known, I would have started it days ago..." The front doors came into sight as he rounded a corner. Passing the front office, a light caught his attention, however, prompting him to pause. Upon first glance he thought perhaps it was only light reflecting off the windows of the office.

But it wasn't.

Normally, it wouldn't be a strange sight to see – a computer on in the office. But at this time of day, when all of the office staff had already gone home, the light from a computer screen was very odd indeed. He crept closer until he was right outside the open door – yet another oddity as the door should have been closed and locked. Pressing his back to the wall, he peered inside.

"_So what do you think of the new math teacher?" Eru asked._

"_We have a new math teacher?" Mayaka asked, eyebrow raised._

_Eru nodded. "I guess the school thought it would be nice to have another? I've heard that they are thinking of hiring more staff…"_

"_He seems like he's knows what he's doing," Satoshi shrugged._

"_You have him too, Fuku-chan?"_

"_Yup. Really tall guy – dark hair, dark eyes…" He shrugged again. "You'll know him when you see him."_

"_Did… Did anything seem strange about him to you?" Eru asked quietly._

"_Strange? No, not really. Why do you ask?"_

"_I don't know… I just feel like I've met him before…"_

Satoshi frowned. _Kurosawa-sensei…_ His eyes moved from the teacher to the screen. What he saw there made his heart stop and his blood run cold. _What the…?!_

And then his teacher turned around. "Fukube-san. What are you still doing here?" With a smirk, he added, "And why are you spying on me?"

He stepped from around the corner as the man turned off the computer. "I saw the light and wondered who was in the office since the office staff doesn't stay this late…"

"Ah. Sou desu ka."

"Uhm. If I may ask…"

"Nani?"

"What _were _you doing? … You had a student file up – for a student that doesn't attend this school anymore."

Kurosawa raised an eyebrow. "Student files can only be accessed from the office. Oreki Houtarou is on the registrar for one of my classes but is never there. I simply wondered as to why that was."

"Then you found what you were looking for?"

"Mostly."

"Oh. Ah, sumimasen, sensei! It was none of my business…"

"He was a friend of yours."

Satoshi looked up in surprise. "Huh? Oh… Hai…"

A beat of silence passed before Kurosawa spoke again. "Well, I'd best be going – and so should you. I'll see you in class tomorrow." He started off. "Don't forget the homework!"

Satoshi stared after him until he had turned a corner and was gone from sight, a frown secured to his face. "Houtarou has been gone for almost two weeks now," he muttered to himself. "There's no way his name would still be on the class registrars…"

* * *

"That's definitely strange," Mayaka mused.

Satoshi continued to pace back and forth across the club room's floor. "It doesn't sit right with me. He was looking at Houtarou's file, but definitely _not_ for the reason he gave me."

"Fukube-san," Eru interjected, "what was Kurosawa-sensei wearing when you saw him?"

He paused in his pacing to stare at her. "…The exact same thing he had been wearing all day…" He paused and then added: "And a trench coat – which is odd since the weather is still too warm for such a thing…"

Eru's eyes grew wide. "Was it tan?"

"How did you know that?" he returned in surprise.

"Because I remember why he looks and sounds familiar, Fukube-san. _He was the man I ran into outside the Orekis' home!"_

"You're sure, Chii-chan?"

"Almost completely positive."

"Then if he really is searching for Houtarou…"

"He probably found out from the file where they sent Oreki's school records!"

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Eru whispered. "What if Oreki-kun is trouble?"

"We'll just have to warn him then." Satoshi whipped out his cell phone from his bag on the desk.

"Chottomatte! You can't, Fuku-chan. You said yourself that he told you if his parents found out he'd been contacting us…"

Satoshi sat down, hands clasped in front of him after setting the phone back down. "Maybe… maybe we can come up with some message that isn't direct…"

"A code of some sort?"

"Right."

"We shouldn't send it from your phone either, Fukube-san. You and Oreki-kun have been friends for a long time, right? So someone else in his family might recognize the number if they happen to see it…"

"But he might not recognize yours or Mayaka's number…"

"I agree with Chii-chan. We'll just have to chance that. Now we just have to figure out the message…"

* * *

Houtarou was growing more and more frustrated with each day that passed. His mother carefully avoided the topic, his father flat-out refused to acknowledge his inquiries, and his sister swore she knew nothing else of the matter. In short, he was on the fast track to absolutely nowhere. And it was driving him insane. Without anything to work with, the only place he could go was in circles. And a circle – at least in this case – was not a good place to be.

He wasn't sure how much longer he could take being in the dark, tiny candle flames illuminating just enough so he knew there was _something _lurking in the blackness around him but not enough to even understand the shape of the thing. _It _was there, but whatever _it _was fed off the darkness, and he didn't have enough candles – not enough candles… He couldn't see _it_ – not more than a glimpse, as it darted about in the shadows, just enough to let him know that _it _was still there. _It _was enjoying his misery – enjoying playing _it's _little game with him…

"_INCOMING!" _A shrill voice startled him out of his melancholy musings. Suddenly very alert, his heart threatening to beat its way out of his chest, his eyes darted around, his mind wondering if the world was suddenly coming to an end.

But no one was around. He was completely alone, sitting in the late-summer grass along the shore of Kagoshima Bay. Slowly his eyes were drawn to the black mobile lying innocently next to his school bag, the screen lit with the message of an incoming text. He stared sourly at the device for scaring him half to death before his conscious reminded him that it was probably his fault that sound was set for message alerts. (Regardless, he would have to plot his revenge on Yoshino-san at a later date – even if it was his own fault that his friend had gotten his hands on his phone…) Picking up the device, he unlocked the screen and opened the message.

His sour expression quickly turned to one of confusion as he stared down at the three-word message.

_Judge Lawrence Wargrave_

He didn't know how long he stared at the simple name before his eyes wandered to the sender – a number he didn't recognize.

_Judge Lawrence Wargrave, _he silently mused, fingers absently straying to his bangs. _What is _that _supposed to mean?_

* * *

_~Candles in the Dark~_


End file.
